BURRILLVILLE, R.I. (WPRI) — A Burrillville man may not be alive today if it weren’t for the heroic efforts of a complete stranger.

Photo credit: Susan Campbell

Firefighters from several departments responded to Wallum Lake Road Thursday night to battle a house fire. But before crews arrived on scene, Tim Durand was driving by and saw flames shooting from the residence.

“The flames were pretty big, pretty intimidating looking back on it now,” he said.

When he didn’t see any firefighters or residents outside the home, he decided to act. That split-second decision most likely saved a man’s life.

“I got in, started yelling, screaming ‘is there anyone here? Is there anyone here?'” he said. “Then finally in the distance I saw a gentleman sit up, he didn’t know what was going on. There wasn’t any smoke detectors going off, so he had no idea.”

Durand is now being hailed as a hero, but he said he was just in the right place at the right time.

“I think I’m just a normal, everyday guy and the real heroes were the guys that were there putting out the fire,” said Durand. “If they want to call me a hero that’s fine, I’ll call them heroes and we can go back and forth with that, that’s fine with me.”

Fire officials tell us the cause of the fire remains under investigation. No injuries were reported.